In Franklin, parents' pain intensified

Dawn Powers of Franklin will sometimes leave her 10-year-old son alone in the house for a few minutes while she collects the mail or pops in on a neighbor.

Yesterday, she didn't let him out of her sight.

"There was no way I was leaving him alone for even a second," she said. "I had to take him with me."

Ms. Powers is a neighbor of the Munroe family of Chestnut Street in Franklin. Yesterday, her eyes puffy with tears, she brought her son along as she left a bouquet of flowers on their doorstep.

She's had little sleep since Sunday night, when she first heard that the two youngest of the Munroe's five children were found unresponsive inside a hope chest. Yesterday morning, she learned from her husband, a state trooper, that the "sweet, delightful" siblings who often played with her own kids were dead.

"I was praying, 'Please don't take them,'" she recounted. "They were the sweetest kids. And the family always seemed so happy."

Now, the Munroes are enduring the pain and anguish reserved for the most unlucky of parents. Police believe that the children — Lexi, 8, and her 7-year-old brother, Sean — were playing in the home when they locked themselves inside the chest, which could only be opened from the outside. The chest was in a child's bedroom, near a loud television. The father reportedly was home while the mom was at work.

Words can't describe the horror of such a stunning, senseless accident. For Powers, she can imagine the typical Sunday scenario — dad watching football and the kids scattered throughout the split-level house. Mom comes home, the kids are rounded up and hey — where are Lexi and Sean? And suddenly an innocent family is destroyed, their suffering unimaginable.

The Norfolk district attorney has said that the chest was acquired by the family more than a dozen years ago and was made by Lane Furniture of Virginia. In 1996, Lane recalled 12 million chests with lids that automatically latched shut when closed, after reports of at least six children suffocating in the chests.

Such information only adds noxious fuel to the Internet haters, who know nothing about these poor parents but have already deemed them shiftless and responsible for the deaths of their children. Plus, they're probably on drugs and welfare.

"This sounds either not accidental or very bad parenting," wrote a poster on MyFoxBoston.com. "How do you not know that 2 children that age are not around for the amount of time it must have taken them to die?"

In other words, such a tragedy would never happen to them. Maybe it makes people feel better to believe that suffering comes only to those who deserve it. Or maybe they're just jerks. Either way, such heartless sentiments enrage Ms. Powers, who notes that most parents, including the Munroes, go to great lengths to child-proof their home.

"Some of these comments are absolutely disgusting," she said. "These parents are always doing stuff with their kids and taking them places. They didn't leave them home alone. This family is going through enough. They must feel so much guilt, but it's not their fault. When your kids are home, you assume they're safe. Who looks at a hope chest as a death trap?"

As humans, we strive to rationalize tragedy. We seek explanations and we cast about for someone to blame. We reject the reality that good, innocent people suffer for no reason.

"I just want everyone to realize they are good parents," Ms. Powers said. "I don't know what's wrong with us, that we have to judge people we don't even know. Why would anyone want to add to this family's grief?"